Comment by Youden

I think maybe your view is too narrow? It's not that people don't want to make a machine, it's that now they don't have to.

When I started hobby CNC a few years ago, the only compact or desktop CNC machines were flimsy Chinese things made entirely of extrusion, expensive machines made for education/prototyping environments and the Carbide3D Nomad (which I ended up buying).

I ended up building a machine from scratch because the original Nomad was too flimsy to really cut metals, even Aluminium.

But in the last few years companies like Makera came along and sell desktop CNC machines that can cut metal for under $6k USD and there's even a toolchanger.

For just a little more, there's a Kickstarter for a 5-axis machine with mist cooling, ATC a wireless probe and it can cut steel and titanium.

And for those that want a DIY project, there seem to be plenty of folks doing CNC conversions of second-hand manual mills.